Gas-engine



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GAS ENGINE.

No. 569,694.y Patented Oct. 20, 1896.

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3 Sheets-Sheet'. 2. M. W. WEIR.

GAS ENGINE.

Patented 061;. 2o. 1896.

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' GAS ENGINE. No. 569,694. Patented Oct. 20, 1896.

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SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 569,694, dated October20, 1896.

Application filed November 29, 1895. Serial No. 570,459. (No modelJ T0all irritant it may concern:

Be it known that I, MAX WAKEMAN WEIR, a citizen of the United States,residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas-Engines; and I dodeclare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description oftheinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon,which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to that type of gasengines in which the motivepower is effected by the explosion of mixed gas and air under pressure,and has for its object the production of an engine of this classpossessing advantages in point of extreme simplicity of construction, ascompared with existing engines, and durability, and added to these theresults attained render the engine superior in the direction ofprecision and eiectiveness of operation.

The nature of the invention will be fully understood by reference to theAfollowing detailed description, when taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly insection, of a gas-engine embodying` my invention, said engine being ofthe single-acting type. F ig. 2 is a sectional view of enough of adouble-acting engine with my invention embodied to show the application.Fig. 3 is a detail view showing a forni of cam employed with my improvedengine. Fig. 4 represents in diagrammatic views four relative positionsof the essential features of my invention.

Referring to the said drawings by letter, attention being called firstto Figs. l and 3, A denotes the cylinder, which in the instance shown isvertically disposed and supported on a frame B. In this cylinder arearranged two pistons, one of which, C, may be termed the workingpistonand the other, D, the compression-piston, the former having connectionthrough a rod c with the crank e on the driving-shaft eL in the usualmanner. The

working piston is inverted-cup shape and iits the cylinder closely andhas the length of stroke indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. l.

The compression-piston is in the form of a disk and his the cylinderclosely and is connected to'a rod d, which extends without thecylinder-head d, where connection is made with itsoperating means, thecon struction and operation of which will shortly be made apparent. Theinlet-pipe for the gas and air is shown at f, the same being controlledby a valve f', said pipe passing through the head a and admitting theiuid to the cylinder above the compression-piston. At g is shown theexhaust, which is in the nature of a perforated extension of thecylinder, controlled by the means for operating the compression-piston.Surrounding the cylinder is a casing a", which is formed partly byiianges on the cylinder, thereby providing a chamber or passage for thecirculation of water to control the temperature of the cylinder. At apoint 7L in the cylinder are arranged the terminals of an electriccircuit by which there is formed intermittently an electricigniting-spark for producing the explosion of the mixed gas and air.

The compression-piston is provided with a -plurality of apertures d d',which are nor` ina-ily closed by a disk valve d2, arranged in the underside of the piston and seated by the action of a coiled spring d3,interposed between said disk valve and a regulatingscrew di. To theupper exposed end of the compression-piston rod d is secured byasetscrewone end of an arm t', which has its other end connected by set-screws toa rod j, supported and movable in .brackets on the cylinder. Atj* onsaid rodj is an enlargement working in an aperture in the exhaustextension and provided with a slot or perforation jg, by which on themovement of the rod the exhaust is opened or closed. A downward movementis imparted to the rod and in turn to the compression-piston by theaction of a cam k, which is keyed on the driving-shaft and engagesduring a portion of its revolution a pin or lug lf3, carried by therodj. To restore the movement of the rod and compression-piston, Iemploy a coiled spring Z, preferably interposed between the enlargementj and one of the supporting-brackets', as shown. Instead, however, ofemploying the spring the cam may obviously be ot the double-acting type.

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Referring to Fig. et, it will be noted that I have illustrated fourpossible relative positions for the two pistons. The first view showsthe positions at half-expansion, the second at the position ofexplosion, the third at the end of the exhaust, and the fourth at theend of the expansion. In Fig. l `the relative posit-ions of the twopistons is in-4 dicated when the working piston is at halfrising stroke.A slight movement further releases the compression-piston, which, risingsuddenly, causes its valve to open and the mixed gas and air to enterbetween the two pistons. The eompression-piston is now stationary, butthe working piston moves upward until it assumes the position coincidentwith the second View of Fig. 4. The gas and air are now at theirgreatest pressure, and by an automatically-controlled means (not hereshown) the electric circuit is completed and the explosion takes place.At the end of the downward stroke of the working piston the cam operatesto move downward the compression-piston and to open thepreviously-closed exhaust, and the next quarter-turn brings the partsinto the position previously described, and shown in Fig. l, and theoperation is repeated, an impetus being given at every downstroke.

Referring now to Fig. 2, in which I have shown my invention asembodiedin a doubleacting engine, m denotes the working piston,

which is in the form of a cylinder closed at both ends and transverselyapertured rto receive a trunnion-rod m,\vl1ich passes through andextends beyond vertical slots n in the cylinder. Air and gas inlets areprovided at o o, and j) p are the exhausts. Two compression-pistons q qare provided, one at each end of the working piston, and are constructedand operate similarly to the compression-piston previously describedwith reference to Fig. l. For operating the lower compression-piston Iemploy a cam, (not shown,) and preferably arrange said cam on thefly-wheel s. The other compression-piston is operated by the same cam ina manner similar to the lower compression-piston. The connecting-rod tis interposed between a crank on the driving-shaft and the trunnionrod,its position being'indicated by dotted lines in the figure now referredto. For convenience in assembling the machine the cylinder is formed intwo parts flanged and bolted together.

I claim as my invention- 1. An explosive gas-engine comprising acylinder provided with an inlet for the gas and air, an exhaust, andspark-1;)roducing means, a working piston, a compression-pis ton havingvalve-controlled openings, and means for operating saidcompression-piston and controlling the exhaust comprising a rod havingconnections `at its upper end withsaid piston and having a valveconnection with the exhaust and controlled by cam connection with thedriving-shaft.

2. An explosive gas-en gine comprising a cylinder provided with an airand gas inlet, an exhaust and a spark-producing device, a working pistonhaving crank connection with the driving-shaft, a compression-pistonhaving a plurality of apertures normally closed by a spring-controlleddisk-valve, and having a rod extending without the cylinder, and a rodfor operating the compression-piston and controlling the exhaust havingconnection at its upper end with the piston-rod and having a slottedportion moving across the exhaust -passage, said rod being normallyraised, and a cam on the driving-shaft for intermittently depressingsaid rod.

In testimony whereof I afx my signature in presence of two witnesses.

MAX WAKEMAN VEIR.

fitnessesz ANsoN BURLINGAME COLE, W. E. CoRTELYoU.

